


A New Perspective

by ThatDamGirl (Reveles)



Series: Di Immortales [5]
Category: The Trials of Apollo - Rick Riordan
Genre: Blood and Injury, Book 4: The Tyrant's Tomb (Trials of Apollo), Gen, Major Character Injury, Music, New Rome (Percy Jackson), POV Frank Zhang, Singing, The Burning Maze (Trials of Apollo) Spoilers, The Tyrant's Tomb (Trials of Apollo) Spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-01-14
Updated: 2021-01-14
Packaged: 2021-03-18 14:20:39
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,819
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28744626
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reveles/pseuds/ThatDamGirl
Summary: Apollo and Meg's arrival at Camp Jupiter from the POV of Frank Zhang
Relationships: Apollo & Frank Zhang, Apollo & Meg McCaffrey, Apollo & Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano, Frank Zhang & Meg McCaffrey, Hazel Levesque/Frank Zhang, Reyna Avila Ramírez-Arellano & Frank Zhang
Series: Di Immortales [5]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2100783
Comments: 4
Kudos: 57





	A New Perspective

**Author's Note:**

> This is Frank's pov of Apollo and Meg's arrival at Camp Jupiter, the dialogue in the middle is all from _The Tyrant's Tomb_ by Rick Riordan so I don't own that (everything from "Praetors, we rescued these travellers at the borders of camp," to "Of course. Together, we'll mourn and honour our dead. Afterwards, we will discuss our plans of war," everything between the dialogue was written by me though and all the dialogue before and after those lines is also original). I hope you like it!

"Frank! Frank, wake up! Praetor Zhang!"

"Wha- Reyna?" Frank mumbled, slowly waking up after being ripped from his dreams by his fellow praetor shaking him.

"Hazel and Lavinia and bringing two people into camp. No one recognised either of them, and they appear to be carrying a coffin," Reyna answered and Frank jolted upright.

"Two people and a coffin?" Frank asked, tumbling out of his bed and pulling on a pair of jeans hurriedly before tossing his purple cloak over his pyjama shirt.

"It appears so, yes. One young girl and a teenage boy," Reyna told him as they made their way to the principia.

"Right... demigods?" 

"We don't know Frank, but they seem to be friendly. Hazel and Lavinia are helping them carry the coffin," Frank felt his unease increase, in his worry about the two unauthorised visitors, he had momentarily forgotten about what they were bringing with them.

Soon enough, the pair stopped on the steps of the principia, silently watching as the group drew nearer. Other members of the legion had gathered to watch as well, but Frank paid them no mind as he studied the new arrivals. The girl seemed to be around twelve, with black hair in a pageboy cut and ratty red high tops, she was carrying no obvious weapons, though Frank knew better than to assume that she had none. The boy was older, perhaps sixteen or seventeen, with curly brown hair, he had a bow slung across his back, and for some reason a ukulele and he was pressing a wad of green fabric against his stomach, like he was injured.

After his assessment of the newcomers, Frank turned his attention to Hazel, taking in her expression to try and gauge what she thought of these people. Her expression was laden with grief, causing Frank to look exactly where he had been trying to avoid- the coffin. Somehow he knew that it was one of their friends in there, someone that he had fought with, someone that both he and Hazel cared about. It was all he could do not to cry then and there, but he had a job to do, the legion had already suffered enough losses, he needed to ensure that these new people posed no threat.

Once the group came to a stop, Lavinia tried to explain before Reyna silenced her and asked for Hazel's report. Hazel gave the other pallbearers a look, before they lowered the coffin.

"Praetors, we rescued these travellers at the borders of camp," she began before pointing to the girl, "This is Meg,"

"Hi. Is there a bathroom? I need to pee," said Meg, Frank wasn't entirely sure what to make of that statement.

"Er, in a sec, Meg," Hazel assured her, though she looked flustered, "And this..." she gestured to the boy with an air of someone who couldn't believe what they were about to say, "This is Apollo,"

The crowd began to whisper, all echoing Frank's thoughts, this was Apollo? As in, the god Apollo?

"Settle down," Frank ordered, noticing the uncomfortable look that was on the boy's face as he heard the entire legion whisper about him, not believing that he could be one of the twelve Olympians.

Frank took in his tired posture, the heavy sadness that he carried, the cloth stained with red blood that he had pressed to his abdomen, and decided that even if this boy wasn't the god Apollo, that he at least deserved to tell them his story.

"Hazel, can you... explain that? And, erm, the coffin?" Frank asked, desperate to know what was going on.

Hazel just looked over to the boy- Apollo, silently commanding him to explain. Apollo looked unsure for a moment, before hesitantly looking down at his ukulele, then looking back up at the gathered legion and beginning to sing acapella. The song was beautiful, of mourning and loss, Frank felt his mind reel as his question to which of their friends had died was answered, Apollo's voice soared, painting a picture of Jason's heroic actions, praising him and mourning him at the same time.

Frank listened in fascination as Apollo recounted the story of his quest, each moment building up to a refrain about Jason, as if all of Apollo's pain paled in comparison to what he felt at the fall of Jason Grace.

Some time during the song, the legion seemed to accept that the battered boy in front of them was Apollo, and that they would do better than to treat him like one of the gods, they would treat him like one of their own, they would fight beside him and Meg, to avenge Jason.

Frank wasn't sure how long the song lasted, but once it had finished, he wiped his eyes and looked at the coffin that held the body of his friend and thought about how much he had lost, not just Jason, but so many others of the legion. Frank wondered when the sacrifice would end, or if it ever would.

"We will have a state funeral," Reyna announced, if Frank hadn't known her, he wouldn't have noticed the sadness clouding her words, or the feint redness around her eyes.

Feeling like he should contribute something, Frank said, "And we'll realise Jason's dream. Those temples and- everything Ja-" Frank stopped for a moment to compose himself, his emotions threatening to overtake him again. "Everything he envisioned. We'll build it all in one weekend,"

Frank could feel the energy of the legion change, their sadness becoming determination, determination to honour their fallen comrade by finishing what he had begun. A few nodded, and began a chant of 'Ave! Hail!' The rest of the legion soon joined in, pounding their weapons against their shields.

Once the chanting died down, Reyna began to speak again, "Apollo and Meg will be guests of Camp Jupiter. We will find them a place to stay-"

"And a bathroom?" Meg cut in, looking in dire need of one

Reyna smiled faintly, "Of course. Together, we'll mourn and honour our dead. Afterwards, we will discuss our plans of war,"

The legion cheered, banging their shields, Apollo opened his mouth, about to say something, but before he could, he went limp, collapsing face first onto the dirt. Frank stared at him in shock for a moment, gangly limbs sprawled awkwardly on the ground, a few of the arrows from his quiver coming out and rolling away, the bloodstained green fabric loosely grasped in his hand. Meg glared at him as if to say 'really, you couldn't have waited until after I went to the toilet?'

Shaking himself out of his shock, Frank yelled "We need a healer!" and rushed over to where the fallen god lay. He and Meg rolled Apollo over, so he was lying face up. The wound on his stomach was bleeding alarmingly fast, staining his t-shirt and the waistband of his jeans.

A healer- Pranjal rushed over, took one look at the wound and demanded, "Why didn't he tell us about this earlier? These _euronymos_ cuts are serious!"

Meg looked like she wanted to say something, but she just shook her head and asked, "Can you fix it?"

"I should be able to, we'll need some lemurian spice, maybe some nectar and ambrosia-"

"He can't have nectar or ambrosia!" Meg cut in, "He's mortal now, it'll kill him!"

Pranjal looked taken aback, "Okay- uh, can someone ask Bombilo if we can use his spare room? And some lemurian spice? I'd take him to the medical centre but it's full, and besides, Bombilo's is way closer,"

Reyna nodded and went off to get the shop owner, soon enough, Frank was helping Hazel to carry Apollo's limp form up the stairs to Bombilo's spare room. They laid him across the bed and Pranjal immediately began fussing over him, ordering people to fetch jars of spice, fresh bandages and various other medical supplies. Meg watched anxiously while he worked, clearly concerned for her friend.

Frank gave her a smile and tried to reassure her, "Pranjal is our best healer, Apollo is going to be okay,"

"I know, he's had worse. It'd be stupid for him to die of some cut after all everything else," Meg replied, Frank was tempted to ask what she meant by 'everything else' and if it had anything to do with the scar on Apollo's chest, but he was saved from having to when Meg continued, "I can see that you wanna ask me something, so spit it out,"

Frank was momentarily taken aback by her bluntness, "Uh, I was going to ask what you meant by 'everything else', you don't have to tell me if you don't want to, though,"

Meg considered this for a moment, before deciding that telling Frank would be better than sitting silently and worrying about Apollo, "Well, for starters, yesterday Medea tried to flay him alive to extract his essence and make Caligula the new sun god," Frank stared at her in shock as she continued, "And the day before that, he stabbed himself in the chest so Piper, Jason, Crest and me could escape from Caligula's boat. Medea healed him though because they needed him to be alive so they could get his essence. That's what the scar's from,"

"He- he stabbed himself?" Frank asked, shocked. Stabbing yourself so your friends could escape did not seem like a move a god would make. He looked at Apollo, so fragile looking on the bed, seeming for all the world to be another injured demigod and tried to reconcile him with the sunny god that he had admired from afar. There was something more real about the Apollo that was in front of him, something so much more human, Frank was having some trouble processing it.

Meg nodded, "Yeah, and he saved me in the Oracle's cave when we were in Indiana, and before that, at Camp Half-Blood, he rescued me from the _myrmekes_ nest, and then saved his kids in the Grove of Dodona and shot a big gold statue in the ear to stop it from trampling the camp. Oh, and at the Waystation, Leo said he did this thing with light and blinded Commodus. After all that, it'd be stupid for him to die because of that scratch,"

Frank needed a minute to process all of that, he had always looked up to Apollo, had even hoped that he was his father at one point, but after hearing all of that, he couldn't help but admire him even more. What Apollo had done, and as a mortal, was more than some demigods would ever do in their lives, and certainly more than any of the other gods had ever done or would even think of doing.

Once he found his tongue again, Frank assured her, "You're right Meg, if he can survive all of that, he'll survive this,"

**Author's Note:**

> I hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed writing it! I would love to hear what you thought of it!  
> I hope the rest of your day/night is amazing! Vale!  
> ~ThatDamGirl


End file.
